Posted: April 14, 1998 at 08:39:01: by Martin Read
: I was reading through the newsgroups on Tolkien lately and saw that when people mentioned what influenced Tolkien's writings it is always Norse mythology. If I can recall Beowulf and The Elder Edda were major influences and was wondering if anyone knew where I could find some information about this connection.
: All help will be greatly appreciated, thank you.I think that Tolkien was also influenced by the mediaeval Arthurian romances particularly in the concept of the "Quest". He was certainly very familiar with them and if my memory serves me he translated at least one into modern English - "Gawain and the Green Knight". In many ways the Arthurian stories represent a synthesis of older legends going back to Celtic roots. Even the symbolism of The Holy Grail appears to be not totally Christian in origin and may be connected to pagan Celtic legends of life-giving cauldrons such as the one owned by the Irish god Daghda. The Celtic legends seem to me to be closer in spirit to Tolkien's creations than the Germanic equivalent. Certainly the romance of Beren and Luthien which seems to lie at the heart of Tolkien's early work is more clearly paralleled in Irish, Scots and Welsh folk-tales where encounters between mortals and "The Fair Folk" abound, rather than in the grimmer Germanic/Norse view of the "Otherworld". The core Celtic myths are found in the Welsh "Mabinogion", and the Irish "Tain Bo Culainge" (Cattle-raid of Cooley) and "Cu Roy MacDaTho" (Mac Datho's Pig) recounting the adventures of the hero Cuchulain (Cu-hoolin).
| 
